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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Erik Bruner-Yang is leaving his position as executive chef at Toki Underground (2nd floor 1234 H Street) to focus on other projects, including one in Adams Morgan. A rumor to this effect has been circulating, and Eater confirmed it yesterday. Jonathan Uribe (previously of TaKorean and Neopol) is taking over, and Brightest Young Things talked to him about his future at Toki.
Indian/Pakistani restaurant Cusbah (1128 H Street) will close by May 1st according to District Cuisine, which also reports that the landlord is looking for a new restaurant to take over the space.

Earlier this month District Cuisine revealed that chef Todd Gray was no longer associated with Watershed, which was the restaurant at the Hilton Garden Inn (1225 1st Street) in NoMa. The hotel website now calls its restaurant the Garden Grille & Bar.

I'm surprised (and disappointed as well) about Cusbah. Sure, it could be slow on the weeknights sometimes, but it never seemed empty or anything. Landlord capitalizing and raising the rent? And I thought the lines at Indigo could be long now...

From what I hear indirectly (Cusbah seems not to be responding to direct inquiries) the staff are saying the closing is just a rumor. However, I have talked to Mike from District Cuisine (who has talked to someone from the landlord side of the equation) and I am confident he has done his due diligence. He is being told that Cusbah will vacate the space before May 1st. This is supported by the large for lease sign on the building. There appears to be some kind of disagreement between Cusbah and its landlord. I would very much like to see the restaurant remain open and operating at this site, so I hope they can come to some sort of amicable agreement.